solve.py

newCharDict = {'a':0,'b':0,'c':0,'d':0,'e':0,'f':0,'g':0,'h':0,'i':0,'j':0,'k':0,'l':0,'m':0,'n':0,'o':0,'p':0,'q':0,'r':0,'s':0,'t':0,'u':0,'v':0,'w':0,'x':0,'y':0,'z':0, 'empty':0 }


goodchars = []
badchars = []

#with open('./wordList.txt') as f:
with open('/usr/share/dict/words') as f:
    wordList=f.read().splitlines()

wordList = [x.lower() for x in wordList]

newWords = wordList

print "No of words:", len(newWords)
charDict = newCharDict
while True :
#    newWords  = wordList
    bestChar = 'empty'
    for key in charDict :
        charDict[key] = 0

    userinput = raw_input("letters, use - for empty: ")

    words = []
    for word in newWords :
        if len(word) == len(userinput) :
            words.append(word)
    newWords = words
    
    for word in newWords :
        for i in range(len(word)) :
            if word[i] not in list(charDict.keys()) :
                try:
                    newWords.remove(word)
                except Exception as e:
                    print word
                    print e
                    pass


            if (userinput[i] != word[i]) and (userinput[i] != '-') :
                try :
                    newWords.remove(word)
                except :
                    pass

            if (userinput[i] == '-'):
                try :
                    charDict[word[i]] = charDict[word[i]] + 1
                except:
                    pass


    
    for char in charDict :
        if charDict[char] > charDict[bestChar]:
            bestChar = char

    print "score:", charDict[bestChar], "  bestchar:", bestChar 
    charDict.pop(bestChar)
#    print charDict

    print "amount of words considered: ", len(newWords)
    print "-"*80
    print ''